Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryanna
Ginnnie,
I agree with Stacy... a probiotic is a great idea! I suggest that everyone take probiotics irrelevant of their health status because it simply replenishes the good bacteria that is destroyed from food, stress, medications.... etc.
Yogurt is generally a good source of probiotics but only if it is home made because the commercial stuff has been processed to the max. Probiotics cannot tolerate changes or fluctuations in temperature because the bacteria will die. Most refrigerated processed foods go through various temperature changes to the point where by the time it gets on the grocery shelf, the nutritional value is very little.
If you do buy yogurt, it is best to buy the plain kind and add your own fruit because the ones with the fruit are very high in sugar. Adding your own fresh fruit will be lower in sugar.
You can buy a drink called Kefir at most health food stores which contains high amounts of probiotics. It has a short shelf life meaning it is processed quickly and does not last long. Just make sure it does not contain any sugar.
There are lots of probiotics on the market. I prefer the one called Culturelle because it is processed under strict conditions and each capsule is immediately enclosed in an individual wrapper. So it is not in contact with light or too much change in temperature. I found the best price for supplements to be at www.vitacost.com. Another one that I like is by Enzymatic therapy called Pearls. Again these are individually wrapped.
Hope this helps a bit. So glad to have you here with us Ginnie!!
Bryanna |
It is amazingly easy to make your own yogurt or kefir with starter and raw milk. You can use pasteurized milk, too, but you get a better result with raw milk if you can get it. And then you get lots of probiotics!
Or buy plain yogurt--Trader Joe's makes a great Greek yogurt plain--and add your own fruit and sweetener. The typical serving of fruit yogurt has 2 tablespoons of sugar!! By switching to plain yogurt, adding xylitol and my own fruit, I easily eliminated 2 TBSP of sugar a day. My skin is grateful. Cutting out bread was another smart move for me. The bromine in processed bread is not at all good for your thyroid.
I still take additional probiotic daily. Remember that 70% of your immune system is in your gut, so a probiotic is a basic essential for everyone because our food is too clean. In other cultures where they eat raw milk, kefir, kimchee, etc--unpasteurized or fermented foods--they don't need to supplement with probiotics, but we pasteurize and sterilize everything. And then it is shipped thousands of miles away, so the freshness is really debateable, too.
This is all taking my mind off my tooth, which is great! If it really hurt, I could happy say goodbye to it, but mostly it feels fine. Sigh.